Never thought it would be so muc

This year Bill Richardson, Tony Testone, Ronald Hall and Myself are fishing the SKA Division 5 king fish trail. This is a king mackerel tournament trail with tournaments in St Augustine, Jacksonville, Fernandina and New Smyrna Beach. So far we have fished three of these events and weighed fish in each.

The first event out of St Augustine, we were all fired up. We had our live baits from Lee's Live Bait and had a couple dozen ribbon fish and to the Elton Bottom we went. The Elton Bottom that we headed to was a 58 mile run from St Augustine and seemed like 100 miles. Even though my Honda Powered World Cat rides great and with the two Honda 225's will run at 50 miles per hour, that just seemed like a very long run. When we got to the Elton Bottom, we were one of about 40 boats. And some of them had been there for a long time by the time we got there.

We got our baits out and fished hard to only produce a few small eight and nine pound kings. Needless to say, we were all very disappointed in our results for this day.

The next day, we headed to a close in reef, which produced fish all day but nothing over thirteen pounds, that we got to the boat. About the middle of the day, we had a real nice king on but had knot failure and managed to lose this fish.

The next tournament out of Fernandina, we did things a little different, with no weak link between the leader and our 15 pound test Cajun Red line on the spools of our Pflueger Contender reels.

The first day the wind was a steady 20 plus knots out of the northeast with an out going tide at the jetties. Can you imagine what the waves were like in the inlet. If you cannot, let me tell you they were 8 to 10 feet a and sloppy. We were going to test the World Cat 270TE on this day. After we made our way through the inlet, the seas laid down to 4 to 5 feet and sloppy as the World Cat pushed it's way to our first spot. We fished the southeast hole, live bottom about six miles from the inlet. We fished there for a couple of hours with no results. We then headed to the beach where we finished our day with no results. All day in sloppy seas and no king fish.

The second day the weather was nice and we headed offshore in search of a money fish. The seas had laid down and we were able to run 40 knots to the first spot and we were the only ones there. We sent out our baits and were immediately hooked up. We angled this fish to the boat to find out it was a barracuda. We quickly cut him off and starting sending out baits. I had a rod in my hand sending out a goggle eye when something nice attacked the bait and started screaming out line. I locked down the free spool and handed the Ugly Stik Tiger Rod to Tony, as I spun the boat towards the fish. Tony battled the fish for about 5 minutes and as the very nice king came to the boat Bill stuck him and in the boat it came.

We were all jazzed, we had what we thought was about a 30 pound fish. We quickly got back on the spot, got our baits out and began battling with small mahi. They were so small, they could not get our big baits in their mouths but did mess them up when they tried to eat them. We fooled around at this spot for about and hour and had to leave.

We were dragging two ribbon fish down deep on the Cannon downriggers and a blue runner and a goggle eye just under the surface. Our second pass over the spot, produced a screamer. Line was flowing from the spool as this fish was getting it. After a few minutes in the boat came a nice fish, a 27 pound king. Again we all felt like we were on our way to cash a check, as we had not the good spot yet. We fished a while longer at this spot and headed to our honey hole spot.

We had only had our baits in the water for a couple of minutes and another screamer. We cleared all of the lines and began to do battle with a monster king. This fish made a pass by the boat, just out of gaffing range and we all went nuts. This was a 40 plus pound fish and we were going to cash a nice check. We left out one little thing in our premature check cashing. On the second pas by the boat, Bill reached out to gaff the fish the same time a monster shinny silver set of razor sharp teeth bit off our fish from just behind the dorsal fin. Our bubble was popped as the STINKING BARRACUDA swam off with 15 to 20 pounds of our money fish in it's mouth.

We weighed the bit in half king on Sunday and it weighed 34.6 pounds. If we had managed to get this one to the boat in whole condition, we would have cashed a nice check.

As of this writing, we (Team No Doubt) are in 13th place in our division, with two more events to fish. If we can keep weighing in nice fish and stay in the top 20, we will get an invitation to fish the Nationals. So far not so bad for four guys in their first year of king fishing.

I prefer wreck fishing as to beach fishing because there seems to be action on the wrecks. Some of the wrecks that work good in the summer months are PM, PG, MR, NM, Dunns Run, JW, PV, HH, SS, HG and BR. You can find all of the GPS or Loran numbers for these wrecks at

Once you get to the spot, start sending out your baits. If you a dragging ribbon fish, I like one down deep (40 to 70 feet) and one up shallow (15 to 25 feet). I usually run a poggey, blue runner or goggle eye out each side, one long (50 yards back) and one short (15 to 20 yards back). Try to keep your boat on the edge of the reef as this is usually where the fish hold. I like to troll just on the outside of the bait schools that will show up on your recorder. When you hook a fish, EVERTHING else has to quickly come out of the water. All of the other lines and downrigger lines. Once this is done, point the boat towards the fish and run towards him just fast enough so the angler can quickly get line back on the reel.

Now comes the dangerous part. You have a fish on the gaff, with sharp teeth and a bunch of real sharp treble hooks hanging off him. BE CAREFUL not to get bit or a hook in you. Put the fish in the box and do not try to get the hooks out until it is good and dead.

Your trolling speed should be between 1/2 and 2 knots, depending on your bait. Poggies can't swim much faster than 1/2 knot but blue runners and goggle eyes can swim right up there around 2 knots. And ribbon fish will still troll correctly all the way up to 3 knots if rigged correctly with one of Dave Workman's Strike Zone ribbon fish rigs.

I have mentioned several times the name Dave Workman and the reason is he owns a tackle store in Jacksonville but most important, he is the only one in the history of the Southern Kingfish Association that has earned the Angler of the Year award three times. That is why I use his products. To achieve this, he must know what he is doing.

Lots of amberjacks on the reefs between 20 and 28 miles out. You can have my share of these. Still big numbers of beeliners in 80 to 110 feet of water. Lots of kings from the beach to out deep. Lots of cuddas with the kings. A few nice snapper and grouper in the deeper water, 100 to 140 feet with some nice 5 to 15 pound mangroves mixed in. Bring your electric reel.

Flounder everywhere with big numbers around the creeks near the inlets. Try a Sea Striker grub or small paddle tail on a lead head jig. I like to soak them on poggy oil before using them. Big numbers of small trout in the creeks on high water. Try a small suspending lure or a Trout Killer on a 5/0 X-Point worm hook. Fish this with 10 pound Power Pro on a small Pflueger spinning outfit. You can cast it a mile and with this light outfit, you can work the bait like a wounded minnow. Cast in the flooded grass and work it out slowly.

Big redfish in the river and they are eating lady fish chunks, croaker chunks and blue crab. I like to catch a few small croakers and cut off the head and tail, then send them back down using a Daiichi 5/0 circle wide hook. Put the rods in the holders and sit back and wait for them to double over. Remember, these are the breeders so PLEASE revive them before sending them back.